Surround placement for two rows

[BigSkreen]

I need help placing my surrounds in my home theater. I will be wall mounting the speakers with mounts that pivot. I have Salk Surround I as my rears (direct radiating).

I have 2 rows of home theater chairs. The article says Dolby suggest the surround speakers be between 90 and 110 degrees. If I do this for the front row then my surrounds are in front of everyone.

I think the best location is behind the back row as it allows both speakers to be a little more equidistant from everyone but I don't want to piss Dolby off.

The next question is how high should they be? The mounts will tilt down. My 2nd row is eventually going to be put on riser but my ceilings are only about 8ft high.

 

[TLS Guy]

I need help placing my surrounds in my home theater. I will be wall mounting the speakers with mounts that pivot. I have Salk Surround I as my rears (direct radiating).

I have 2 rows of home theater chairs. The article says Dolby suggest the surround speakers be between 90 and 110 degrees. If I do this for the front row then my surrounds are in front of everyone.

I think the best location is behind the back row as it allows both speakers to be a little more equidistant from everyone but I don't want to piss Dolby off.

The next question is how high should they be? The mounts will tilt down. My 2nd row is eventually going to be put on riser but my ceilings are only about 8ft high.

I think we all have the same quandary. I chose to set it correctly for the front row. That makes the surrounds in front of the back row, but that does not seem to matter.

I really had no option but to get them high, and I would recommend that so they do not get obstructed. I think it helps that I have rears and surrounds. Also it so happens that the speakers I had handy for the surrounds have a 15 degree downward tilt because of the crossover configuration.

People do not complain of localizing to the surrounds, and I don't find it a problem sitting in the back row.

You can see one surround and a rear here.

You can see the other surround here.

And now I bet your curious about the fronts!

 

[jostenmeat]

I need help placing my surrounds in my home theater. I will be wall mounting the speakers with mounts that pivot. I have Salk Surround I as my rears (direct radiating).

I have 2 rows of home theater chairs. The article says Dolby suggest the surround speakers be between 90 and 110 degrees. If I do this for the front row then my surrounds are in front of everyone.

I think the best location is behind the back row as it allows both speakers to be a little more equidistant from everyone but I don't want to piss Dolby off.

The next question is how high should they be? The mounts will tilt down. My 2nd row is eventually going to be put on riser but my ceilings are only about 8ft high.

I have seen experts take one of two approaches. Make it perfect for the sweetspot, king's throne, everyone else be damned, or to compromise for everyone. That will have to be your first decision.

I also just posted this a few days ago elsewhere:

Note that no one voted for dipoles here. That is different from bipole. You may possibly consider multiple sets of monopole side surrounds too. I believe you can get a receiver with preouts, and use the receiver's side surround speaker outputs to power one set, and the preouts to an amplifier to power a second set, for example. Level matching of course. Just an idea to investigate.

I have bipole side surrounds for a 2 row setup, after having monopoles straddling them. The greater coverage I was hoping for, IMO, is only subtly there, and not as great as I was hoping for. One should consider that bipoles often are considerably more expensive than the matching monopoles, so to speak. OTOH, mine are actually more diminutive than the monopoles they replaced, but also give up a little extension. Good luck.

I went with the bipolar idea after reading this AH article:

How To Calibrate a Multi Row Home Theater.

In the end, as with almost anything else, I would recommend experimenting. Then you will know for sure.

As for height, that will depend on the final height of the riser, or more specifically, the height of the rear row's ears. Try to make sure that the surrounds are not lower than their ears, if possible. If your riser is very high, like mine is, then obviously the surrounds and rears will be considerably higher than the front row.


My general impression so far: The side to side angles have more impact that height.

If you pull side surrounds waaaaay behind the front row, you may* have a large, noticeable gap in the soundstage.

If you're really into the wide, seamless soundstage for HT, you may look into Audyssey DSX, either adding wide speakers, height speakers, or both.

 

[TLS Guy]

I would make a couple more comments. Make sure HF and mid range sound comes from drivers higher than the back of the speaker chair.

I have to say I have had no problem with monopole speakers.

There is the predominant view that the quality of the surrounds is not crucial. I doubt that is so. Poor speakers always draw attention to themselves no matter how many poles they have. Good speakers disappear. In many demos I have heard, I just focus on poor small surrounds the whole time. For me far more often than not they just distract, (and subtract) from the experience to the extent I would rather listen in stereo.

I may be in the minority, but I think all the speakers have to meet high standards.

I actually believe that in the surround experience you really need speakers that are self effacing and do not draw attention to themselves. I think that is just as important for movies as blockbuster SACDs.

I'm firmly of the belief that most members would be better off putting dollars into two good speakers rather five or seven, but I expect to stay in the minority on that.

Part of the problem is that I just can't tune out any speaker with serious deviations, especially if it has a forward sound stage. I just bugs me more and more as time goes by, (minute by minute in fact), and that includes any position it is placed or what ever function it is carrying out.

 

[BigSkreen]

I think we all have the same quandary. I chose to set it correctly for the front row. That makes the surrounds in front of the back row, but that does not seem to matter.

I really had no option but to get them high, and I would recommend that so they do not get obstructed. I think it helps that I have rears and surrounds. Also it so happens that the speakers I had handy for the surrounds have a 15 degree downward tilt because of the crossover configuration.

People do not complain of localizing to the surrounds, and I don't find it a problem sitting in the back row.

You can see one surround and a rear here.

You can see the other surround here.

And now I bet your curious about the fronts!

You wouldn't have situated this particular HT under a volcano would you? I might have seen this layer in a Bond movie.

I have to ask did you install racks and then surround them with wood? I really like this look. I eventually plan to put a rack/shelf in the wall for my components and build a sliding bookshelf that will cover them. That is a ways down the road though.

I think I'll end up putting the surrounds in the back for a few reasons. For now I think it will give the best sound to everyone it also gives me a little more flexibility in height and I don't have to wall mount speakers that will possibly get in the way of people walking on the room. I was encouraged not to spend the money I did on my surrounds because they were too nice for the rear. I got them because the are beautiful, they match my fronts in both visually and soniclly.

I'm putting most of my efforts into making sure the front row has the best sound but I don't totally want to neglect the rear. That is where my friends will be when I'm showing off my home theater.

Thanks for the help.

 

[TLS Guy]

You wouldn't have situated this particular HT under a volcano would you? I might have seen this layer in a Bond movie.

I have to ask did you install racks and then surround them with wood? I really like this look. I eventually plan to put a rack/shelf in the wall for my components and build a sliding bookshelf that will cover them. That is a ways down the road though.

I think I'll end up putting the surrounds in the back for a few reasons. For now I think it will give the best sound to everyone it also gives me a little more flexibility in height and I don't have to wall mount speakers that will possibly get in the way of people walking on the room. I was encouraged not to spend the money I did on my surrounds because they were too nice for the rear. I got them because the are beautiful, they match my fronts in both visually and soniclly.

I'm putting most of my efforts into making sure the front row has the best sound but I don't totally want to neglect the rear. That is where my friends will be when I'm showing off my home theater.

Thanks for the help.

When you have friends you sit in the back. Although in this rig the sound is very uniform.

As far as construction the racks were framed and aluminum angle screwed on with lag bolts.

Then the pro 19" rack gear was bolted into the usual fashion.

The non pro gear was mounted to shelves placed on more aluminum angle between the rear and front metal frame.

Spacer pieces are then cut for the spaces between units. These are mounted with bolts just like 19" rack units. I made a great excess of this material for changes over the years. This makes it easy to change the rig.

Everything is bonded with a star burst grounding system.

The Turntable case and the computer desks were built as free standing units and mounted between the studs.

The power amps are above the computer case.

That is basically the essence of it.